Click through to see and hear.
“Fearsome Forest Hawk”
Click through to see and hear.
Category: Animals / Insects / Water Life / Plants / Nature
Beware of Flesh-Eating Sand Piranhas at the Beach | Deep Look
Please remember to check your setting, these are doing in 4K which does make a huge video difference. Hugs
Peace & Justice History for 12/17
| December 18, 1865 Following its ratification by the requisite three-quarters of the states earlier in the month, the 13th Amendment was formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution, ensuring that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”  “Selling females by the pound” |
| December 18, 1999 Julia Butterfly Hill descended from her tiny platform 180 feet up in a giant redwood tree (sequoia sempervivens) named “Luna,” after perching there for 738 days to protect it from loggers. Luna survived a chainsaw attack in 2001 but still stands.   “The question is not ‘Can you make a difference?’ You already do make a difference.It’s just a matter of what kind of difference you want to make during your life on this planet.” – Julia Butterfly Hill More about Julia Butterfly Hill and Luna Luna Today Earth Medicine |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorydecember.htm#december18
This Is Nice-
via The Bee.
Firefly Sparkle shines light on galaxy formation in a youthful universe
December 12, 2024 Ariel Marcy
Astronomers have trained the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on a galaxy named “Firefly Sparkle.” But the young galaxy may not invite you to its birthday party as it is already accompanied by galaxies newly named “Firefly-Best Friend” and “Firefly-New Best Friend!”
Firefly Sparkle does give astronomers a gift: the first glimpse of a typical galaxy in its early stages in the context of a very young universe.
Indeed, the galaxy’s high redshift allowed scientists to date the light we see back to when the universe was just 600 million years old (it is now 13.8 billion years old).
Redshift is the phenomenon which occurs when the source of light moves away from an observer, stretching the light’s wavelength toward the red part of the spectrum. Redshift is due to the expansion of space itself and objects with greater redshifts are older.
Firefly Sparkle was first observed with the Hubble Space Telescope during a survey of the galaxy cluster MACS J1423.8 + 2404. This cluster is massive and as a result, it magnifies the light coming from objects directly behind it but in Earth’s line of sight.
This gravitational lensing effect combined with the sensitivity of the JWST allowed astronomers to study Firefly Sparkle in detail.
The images had enough resolution to show that most of the young galaxy’s mass is concentrated in just 10 star clusters. This makes Firefly Sparkle the farthest galaxy with well-resolved star clusters imaged with spectrographic instruments.
The team also discovered that the galaxy is gas-rich and has a total mass approximately 10 million times the mass of the Sun, which makes it similar in size to that of a progenitor Milky Way.
The authors suggest that observation of Firefly Sparkle could help us understand how the early Milky Way formed. Perhaps cosmic friendship bracelets are in order.
The research is published in the journal Nature.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astronomy/firefly-sparkle-galaxy-formation/
Covers Everything Well
“Shore Lark”
Click through to hear its song while it eats snow!
Peace & Justice History for 12/12
December 12, 1870 Joseph H. Rainey (R-South Carolina) took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first African-American Member of Congress. More about Rainey |
| December 12, 1916 Dr. Ben Reitman was arrested in Cleveland for organizing volunteers to distribute birth control information at an Emma Goldman lecture on birth control. He was sentenced to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine plus court costs.  Dr. Ben Reitman |
| December 12, 1947 The United Mine Workers union withdrew from the American Federation of Labor over the AFL’s failure to organize workers in mass production industries such as textiles, automobiles, steel and rubber. |
| December 12, 1969 The Philippine Civic Action Group, a 1350-man contingent from the Army of the Philippines, left South Vietnam. The contingent had been part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President Lyndon Johnson to enlist allies for the United States and South Vietnam, similar to President George Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing,” the multi-national force in Iraq. |
| December 12, 1983 Seventy people were arrested in Boston outside a hotel where a “New Trends in Missiles” trade conference was being held. Inside the hotel, over 1,000 cockroaches were released to symbolize the likely survivors of nuclear war.  |
December 12, 1986 From a pershing plowshares action 1984 Plowshares activists disarmed a Pershing missile launcher in West Germany. In a statement of intent the four said, “With awareness of our responsibility we understand that we are the ones who make the arms race possible by not trying to stop it.” Details of their action in Pershing to Plowshares |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorydecember.htm#december12
Delightful Poetry On Thursday
Just click the title to read more about the poet and the poem.
In a Grain of Sand by Jesús Papoleto Meléndez
To see a world in a grain of sand …
—from “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake
We are Starseeds
every one of us –
you & me,
& me and you
& him & her,
& them
& they
& those
Who know of this
are truly blessed …
True for all
living beings,
beings living –
not humans only,
but ants & trees
& the open breeze,
things that breathe
air or fire,
water, earth
all kinds of dust
& dirt,
particles
a part of all,
all a part
of
Everything
that is
in everything;
Thus, it Sings!!!
& its song
is Life,
& Life
is!!! …
a seed of Stars,
the dust of Suns
& Moons
rocks & dust
& outer smoke
in outer space
Floating
in a bath of timelessness,
counted, measured
numbered
by some species –
others caring not;
Science & Mathematics
trying to plot
Poetry in motion,
Motion
in a Helix’s curve,
And Life
on Earth
becomes visible
to You
through the naked I!
Copyright © 2024 by Jesús Papoleto Meléndez. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 11, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.
Wed.AM Poem
As always, please click through to learn more about the poem, and the poet.
The Talking Coconut by Ed Morales
Sunset at Luquillo wetlands
Brings the biting flies
As night sky caresses
The murmuring sand
El coco que habla
Me preguntó, cowrie eyes smiled
About the twilight Idlewild
Donde llegó mi papá
He said he was Elegguá
But was wise to front Changó
At parties, in the bodega
Where he had to let go
And declaim the colonial critique
Of privatized electric chic
The long hours spent sweating
The centuries of remembering
Surplus avionetas in northward flow
Slow danced mainland passage
Loss of original language
Nostrand is no place to go
When the jíbaro dance
In the Caborrojeño
Spelled the death of the docile
Somnambulant bugaloo
The coco could only
Speak in tongues freely
The babble of the balneario
Espíritu of the coíony
The décima ringing
Spirit called Lavoe
Alchemical singing
Breaking bad flow
Changó outside,
Elegguá down low
The crossed flag of Lares
Always lets you know
Copyright © 2024 by Ed Morales. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 10, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.
